Expat and travel blog featuring stories on living overseas destinations, as well as some stuff on the expat blogosphere too.

July 2013

07/31/2013

Are you off on holiday soon? It's that time of year when - even if you live in a big city - things just seem to be quieter than usual, with the schools on holiday and many people taking off for destinations elsewhere. Of course if you live in a tourist area, then it's the oppsosite of quiet. But either way, in late July it always feels like it should be holiday time whether you're en vacances or not!

Last year a survey that was widely reported on travel news sites highlighted a worrying statistic - of the respondents surveyed, a third of people going abroad to stay with loved ones had no travel insurance. So if you're an expat and have family over for the summer, it may be an idea to ensure that your visitors aren't among that third.

This year, the most recent figures from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) indicate that a quarter of people heading off onholoday have no insurance. It's believed that the number has risen this high due to stringency around the rules for selling insurance having discouraged many holiday retailers from selling cover.

It's also worth knowing what having cover means - it's not simply about getting medical attention in circumstances such as those covered under the policy e.g. emergencies - travel cover should also cover instanceswhere you require evacuation from one area to another for treatment. Medical evacuation and repatriation are both notoriously expensive and are reason alone to be prepared. of course insurance also means avoiding unexpected bills.

If you're from one European Economic Area country and travelling to another, it's worth getting hold of an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) which is designed to allow you treatment in other European countries on the same basis as a national of that place. This of course means that if people pay towards treatment in their country, then so will you - so it's not a replacement for travel medical insurance but is still a handy thing to have (NB the EHIC doesn't cover emergency evacuation either, onlt private medical cover will do that). EHIC cards are easy to apply for but obviously it pays to make sure you've got your medical cover (and your EHIC) in place before leaving for your flight.

07/25/2013

When you're abroad for a short time, it's good to immerse yourself in a world where everything - or nearly everything - is new. For instance if you go on holiday to France and wander round your local Monoprix, Leclerc or Intermarché, you'll no doubt see a whole new world of tasty food that you just can't find back home - lots of lovely boulangerie, patessirie and charcuterie that's fresh, local, and all a bit of a novelty. What you won't find, of course, is steak pies and HP sauce. And it's things like these that we don't miss over a short period of time that become a bit of a yearning after a while.

And according to a recent news report, it seems that it's not just UK folk who like UK produce - Germany (who according to UK Trade & Investment are our number one European export market) is proving interested in a range of niche and quirly British products from clotted cream to goat's cheese and whisky. It all goes to show how specialised retail can help to popularise certain goods - and while the cheese exports may never match, say Germany's BMW and Mercedes exports in terms of value, niche food is a growing opportunity.

07/17/2013

A recent survey by the UAE's 999 magazine (published by the country's ministry of interior) suggests that despite the emirates' glitzy skyscraper glamour, there are a lot of single people there.

One of the reasons for this is that there's a changing expat demographic and while once there may have been a trailing-spouse effect, with married people of a certain age in senior management positions making the move as an international assignment, these days there are more people of a younger age moving there who also happen to be single.

In fact the number o frespondents who classified themselves as being currently single in the survey was between a third and a half, at 42 per cent. In some of the news articles on this topic, cultural differences were also highlighted, with one individual quoted as saying that " cultural differences both are pretty much applicable for the majority of singles" in the UAE.

The UAE and expats

The UAE is one of the top 10 destinations for expat UK nationals, with 65,000 Brits resident there, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Institute for Public Policy research. Of those, around 680 are retirees who no doubt enjoy the warm weather.

According to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the UAE's healthcare is of a good standard but may not be accessible to visitors without insurance. This UAE healthcare guide describes medical cover as a 'must' for expats in the country, and there were reports in the UK broadsheets earlier this year of people actually being turned away at the airport in Abu Dhabi and not allowed into the emirate as they were insurance-less.

The UAE is very much an expat-dependent ecpnomy, with only a minority of emiratis resident there as compared to foreign nationals, the ratio often being quotes as high as 11 expats for every one national.

07/15/2013

One of the major considerations for expats with school age children is - obviously - education. So what do you do when you're somewhere far, far away and the culture is very different from home? This couple describe their experience of the education available in Pune, India.

The nature of expatriation is that it changes over time - people have always made the choice to go and live abroad, but where they go can depend on any number of factors relating ti the destination, and these can include

cost of living

employment opportunities

political stability

safety

health and education systems

And so on. Currently the number one expat destination for people from the UK is Australia, and it's difficult to envisage there being any change to that any time soon. With its sunny weather and strong economy it's easy to see why people make theor way there to live the expat life. I think it's also fair to say that Australia being part of the English-apeaking world is part of its attraction too - being able to go as far away as is geographically possible but not needing a phrase book is definitely a plus point for many of us.

This week the Telegraph ran an interesting article entitled Why Tomorrow's Expats should choose Germany over Spain, arguing that the former offers cheap property and low taxes. Both of which definitely sound appealing. Spain of course has the great weather factor - and the coastlines, too. But according to the article, Spain has dropped from 33% to 23% in terms of being the place as the favoured destination of "would be" expats.

And having apent a great deal of time in both countries, I would be hard pushed to choose between them simply in terms of which one would be more fun to live in. Interestingly the Mercer quality of life survey has Madrid and Barcelona in its index, albeit placed in the 40s, while Munich, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt are all top ten.

07/09/2013

Kuwait, that tiny country between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, may not have the same draw for expats as Dubai, but it has for a very long tome been home to people of various nations across the world.

In terms of the number of non Kuwaiti residents, the figures vary depending on where you look, so anywhere between around a half and two-thirds of the population are foreigners. Compare this with the UAE, whose populatuion is approximately nine-tenths non- Emirati.

Lately, Kuwait has been aiming to reduce the number of non0nationals who reside there, perhaps to ensure that in future there are maximum employment opportunities for nationals.

Described by the Telegraph as an "anti-foreigner stance", the country's various actions have included upwards of 1000 deportations in relation to traffic offences reported as 'minor' as well as restrictions on who can drive on the country's roads, and restricting times that foreigners can be seen at Jahra Hospital (the city's main facility).

Also according to the telegraph's report, Kuwait has dropped position on the World Economic Forum’s list of rankings for the friendliness of countries towards tourists and visitors. "The Emirate now stands at 137th out of 140 countries", says the report.

However, despite the country's stated aim of reducing the number of non-nationals, there are still going to be a fair amount of non-nationals in Kuwait for a while yet. And there may also be job opportunities for expats for some time to come, specially for people who have in-demand skills.

As always, if you're travelling to Kuwait, make sure you have the right type of insurance, since as the FCE states "fees are expensive". Providers can offer a range of different levels of cover, meaning that you can suit your requirements and budget.

07/06/2013

It's one of those questions that pops up every now and again, and it's not really all that easy to answer - not, at any rate, without getting into the whole semantics thing.

In its simplest definition, expat just means out of (ex) the native land (patria). Those of us who got the poetry of Wilfred Owen rammed into our brains at school may instantly recognise the 'patria' bit from 'dulce et decorum est/ pro patria mori'.

But if course there's more to it than that - and as Ritwik Deo puts it, in anarticle he wrote for the Guardian just under a year ago:

If you only read the British media, you would think there are no British immigrants anywhere in the world. Instead, there are only legions upon legions of expats.

While this is almost certainly the case, does it follow that there is a perception of superiority in the use of the word? Newspapers have to be extremely economical and precise with language, so if, say a UK national who resided in Poland was in the news for winning the Euromillions jackpot, the headline would say something like "What A Zloty Cash. Brit Expat Hits Euro Jackpot!"

Now, let's disregard for a second the fact that Euromillions tickets aren't actually on sale in Poland. Let's just imagine that the winner bought her ticket on a day trip to Luxembourg. Or used the Lotto's online ticket concierge service. So far, so good.

But why expat? Why nor immigrant? Well in this case the headline needs a word that expresses the fact that this is a UK national who is currently (and indefinitely) resident elsewhere. The phrase "UK immigrant" would be unclear since it would hint that she had emigrated from another nation and into the UK. Or try the word "exile" in the above sentence - doesn't really make full sense either - due to its connotations of banishment and inability to return.

I suppose "emigrant" might work in this context, but it's not a word that's as well known and understood, so expat it is.

To add to the confusion, all immigrants are expats anyway, by definition. There may be a host of reasons for people to travel abroad to live - and these cpuld include anything from more favourable tax laws in the new country to escaping political instability in th old country. But expatriation is what it is - a simple matter of being from one place and living in another.